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Pronto Pokémon cafe collab brings exclusive merch and a clever way to take photos of your food

Casey Baseel Jun 22, 2024
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Beach and mountain summer fun from the comfort of an air-conditioned cafe.

“Mountains or beach?” is the question many outdoorsy types ask themselves in Japan each summer, as you’re never all that far from one of those geographic features in the island nation. Of course, some people might contend that with summer’s high temperatures and humidity, it’s the worst time of year for open-air recreation opportunities, and that the best way to spend the next few months is through indulging in indoor and air-conditioned pursuits such as sipping on a cool beverage, playing video games, or watching anime.

Broad-minded Japanese cafe chain Pronto understands that all of these are viable ways to enjoy summer, and so they’ve come up with something that encompasses all of them with a new line of outdoor summer-themed Pokémon drinks, food, and merchandise.

Similar to their real-life Pokémon Scarlet and Violet sandwiches from last year, each of Pronto’s new Pokémon menu items comes with a cool trinket of some sort.

First up are the three drinks. Shown left-to-right in the above photo are: Pikachu’s Midsummer Mango Milk (with panna cotta and a cherry to remind you of Pikachu’s rosy cheeks), Terapagos’s Shiny Gelatin Squash (featuring lychee syrup and Ramune-flavored gelatin), and Sinistcha’s Hospitality Matcha Latte (Uji green tea with shiratama mochi dumplings and azuki sweet red beans), each decorated with seaside or alpine illustrations on their cup and straw tag. Ordering any of the drinks also gets you one of 20 different Pokémon Clear Cards.

Not to be confused with Cardcaptor Sakura’s clear cards, these are art cards with transparent portions. The ones with solid frames are particularly clever, since they let you snap photos of your drink in ways that make it look like a one-of-a-kind Pokémon card!

Moving on to the food, Pronto has whipped up four Poké-dishes.

Starting at the top right in the above photo is the Flying Dragonite Tomato Cream Pasta (with a fluffy fu [wheat gluten] to simulate clouds). Moving clockwise from there we next come to Finizen’s Water Ring Bagel Sandwich (filled with avocado, smoked salmon, and potato salad), Clodsire’s Double Chocolate Mousse (a two-layer desert accented with white chocolate ganache, and, finally, Ogerpon’s Four-Mask Basil Pasta (with asparagus, cheese cream, olives, semi-dried tomatoes, and shrimp).

Instead of a card, each of the food items comes with one of seven adorable key holders, which also have transparent sections.

Pronto is also offering a range of Pokémon gear that can be purchased by itself, and isn’t available anywhere else, with the first batch consisting of an exclusive drink bottle, bento box, and T-shirt…

…and the second a tote bag and drinking glass.

As for prices, the drinks are 990 yen (US$6.40) each, Clodsire’s Double Chocolate Mousse 1,430, Finizen’s Water Ring Bagel Sandwich 1,760, and both pasta dishes 1,870, not bad considering the collectable goodies that come with them. As for the non-food/drink-bundled items, the water bottle is 2,090 yen, the bento box 6,600, the shirt 3,850, the tote 2,420, and the glass 2,420.

The Pokémon drinks and food go on sale July 11 during Pronto’s “cafe time” (effectively lunchtime/evenings, with exact hours varying by branch) and is scheduled to be offered until September 16. Meanwhile, the first batch of for-purchase merch will be available from July 11 as well, with the second arriving on July 25. As is often the case with collaborations like this in Japan, though, they’ll only be offered while quantitates last, so if you’re a fan, you’ll want to get to Pronto, well, pronto.

Related: Pronto location finder
Source, images: PR Times
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